10 Hobbies Worth Pursuing for Your Curious Mind

Hobbies define who we are. You might be wondering aren’t we defined by what our day job is or how much bank balance or friends we have? The answer is you simply are what you choose to be when you are disconnected from the world, calm and choose to do your own thing. Hobbies are where we devote our free time to or make up a time to pursue them relentlessly.

A writer, blogger or a musician with a day job that lets them do their thing isn’t illustrated better by their day job. We all have an itch inside ourselves, a dream that waits inside silently to shine at some point of time. Although, for most of the people in the world, a hobby is something they wish to pursue as a career, but they can’t because it doesn’t pay the bills, at least it is what is occupied in inside most of the people’s minds. But the reality is something else.

Why Hobbies are great for the curious mind?

If you are like me, chances are pretty high that you cannot settle on one particular hobby to pursue it lifelong. For the curious mind, the challenges ought to be even a bit higher than just the plain regular. Volume and Variety in hobbies is what a curious mind thrives upon and cultivating curiosity is pretty essential for honing one’s intellectual and creative abilities.

Hobbies reflect your true passions and specific involvement in a hobby or task is an excellent way to satisfy the ‘accomplishment’ zone of our brains.

Many people often cite fear of failing as their lack of interestin taking up their passions. Taking those same passions as a hobby in the beginning and letting it take over at a later point of time is a great way to get rid of the early hurdle of the fear of failing.

A perspective shift in the way one perceives events and situations are something that is aided by taking up an intellectually challenging hobby, that requires critical thinking and reasoning.

Learning is fun, and you never know what you just learned something about might help you in unexpected situations.

10 Hobbies for the Curious Mind

As discussed earlier, pursuing hobbies are a great way to keep ourselves sane in the world where anxieties and stress abound. While there are thousands of hobbies that people all over the world pursue, there are a few hobbies that are much more intellectually rewarding for the curious mind. Below are ten such hobbies that are worth pursuing if you are feeling adventurous.

Volunteer at Community events

I’ve recently volunteered at a community college event and enjoyed every bit of my time spent there. A community surrounds us, and there always comes a time when it is good to go back to the community. The best part about volunteering at community events is that you make a lot of friends and meaningful connections, whom you wouldn’t meet if it weren’t for such events. You get to share thoughts and experiences with similar people who consider it worth their time to volunteer at a community event.

The mind usually gets satisfied under the illusion of an accomplishment and volunteering for the community events is a great way to feel good about yourselves. It is also an excellent way to learn the ins-and-outs of organizing such events, and you get to learn what it takes to make an event successful. The hours spent volunteering for a greater cause is a great way to take the limelight off yourselves and see the world in an entirely new perspective.

Putting your thoughts concisely on paper is not an easy task and your vocabulary would significantly if you take up writing as a hobby. Be it a book, a blog article or just a page in your diary, try to write daily or at least once in every few days you decide to pursue this habit.

There are plenty of opportunities out there requiring freelance writers/bloggers, and you never know when someone might pay you for your writing. Although this must not be your primary goal for taking up writing, it doesn’t hurt to get paid for doing what you love to do! I’ve myself have a hard time to write daily, given the daily nuances of life, but I make sure that I get on it from time to time in some form of writing or the other. You must eliminate the notion that writing must only be of a masterpiece quality or not at all, and that is when you’ll be able to write something, ever!

Learn to Code

This is probably one of the most challenging hobbies listed out here since it involves extensive use of the computer, which is feared by many people even as of today. Learning to code is possibly the best hobby that you’ll ever take up to satisfy your curious mind. Code.org, backed by some of the most notable people in the tech industry including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and more, want everyone to learn at least a bit of coding. Learning to code gives you the power to create anything that you can dream up of and what great way than that to challenge your curious mind?

There are hundreds of programming languages to start from, and there’s a fantastic article on Lifehacker if you are one of those asking right now, “Which programming language should I start to learn?”. Be it to build games, apps, websites or anything that you use in the present day, it is probably written in code. While it is one of the best ways to challenge your curious mind, it is also a great way to open up new horizons for your career and for yourselves.

The way the internet has made information globally accessible is simply incredible. Making a hobby surrounding such a noble deed is an excellent way to challenge your curious mind in not one but numerous possible ways. From learning to code to taking up a history 101 course and from Wasting time on the internet, the physics of Star Trek and to learning Elvish (The language of the Lord of the Rings!), you can almost learn anything on the web with numerous online resources.

There are hundreds of online resources, both paid and free ones, which let you learn almost anything that you choose to, at your pace. Whatever it is that you ever wanted to learn, you can now do so through the aid of these websites offering their online courses. You can start with Udemy or Lynda. There is no other better hobby to learn something new every day, at your pace and the comfort of your home and your pajamas.

One of the most intellectually rewarding and creativity cultivating hobby is learning to play a musical instrument. Make the most of the online resources as mentioned above to learn to play your favorite musical instrument. Learning to play a music instrument have proven to have significant affects on the creativity and intelligence in people and it is one of the best hobbies to satisfy your curious mind. Learning to play a music instrument also requires serious dedication and practice to master it, both of which are great skills to possess on their own.

As you get used to a musical instrument, trying to come up with your tunes or songs is also not something unfathomable. Learning to play a musical instrument teaches us to relax the way we deserve and what better way to relax than to the music of a guitar or piano? You might even add further challenge to it by joining a beginning music band and strum your tunes together. Let your creativity flow through the form of rhythm from a musical instrument.

While all of the above-mentioned hobbies are somewhat active in nature, requiring some action from your end, watching documentaries is one of the best passive hobbies to pursue. I’ve had an acquaintance who loves his documentaries more than ever Hollywood blockbusters ever released. Watching documentaries is a great way to learn the art of storytelling, while also being able to learn a ton of real-world stuff and why the things work the way they do.

You can get answers to most of your most curious questions through the form of these documentaries. There are hundreds and thousands of documentaries published on topics ranging from World War to Science and technology and real-world incidents. Gaining knowledge on a wide variety of topics while also being intellectually and emotionally stimulated is a perfect blend of what documentaries seem to achieve easily.

Be it to be able to speak a language fluently during your foreign visits or to be able to talk Star Trek’s Klingon language with your friends, learning a new language is a great hobby for anyone to pursue. Communication is an essential skill acquired naturally by humans and why not hone it a bit further, expanding the same to a further new array of languages. Proficiency in a new language is not just cool to look on your resume, but it is an excellent way to satisfy your curious mind.

You can listen to some of the best learning new language podcasts, and you can begin your journey in learning a new language in no time! The number of free online resources to help you learn a new language make it even easier than ever to start speaking an entirely new language in a significantly small span of time. Duolingo offers free mobile app & is a grest resource to learn a foriegn language.

Learn to Cook

If you thought cooking or baking was not cool, think again! Cooking is one of the most rewarding hobbies for the brain (and your stomach!). Learning to cook for your yourselves is one of the essential skills to learn in the world, and you never know when you might badly need these skills. As you grow independent, learning to cook is essential and mixing and matching up of some new recipes is a great way to spice up your cooking routine.

You’ll be amazed the way cooking up new dishes is just that simple and learning the essentials of cooking is a must for everyone in this independent world! It is also an excellent way to take your cooking skills to the next level and host a dinner party for your friends.

While it has now become more affordable than ever to become a professional photographer, it is a great hobby to take up for your curious mind. Photography not only improves your perspective and the way you look at things through the eyes of lenses, but it is also a great form of storytelling. Good pictures tell a story all in themselves and the art of storytelling without a single world spurted out is a great way to satisfy your curious mind.

While you take up photography as a hobby, you might also get paid to shoot photos for a particular event. There are also online portals where you can sell your images for a price and to be paid by professional publications in need of such high-quality images that speak a story. Here are best resources from Youtube to learn photography:

Arts and Crafts are a great way to express your thoughts and feelings, just as writing and playing a music instrument is. Learn to create something intricate, like an Origami. Good art inspires new perspectives in the people exposed to it. Learning to sew, knit, or creating any decorative art forms is an excellent way to keep your curious mind occupied. Sites like Etsy have also made it easier for people to make a living out of their artistic creations if you are worried that art doesn’t pay!

Visit local museums to gain some better inspiration for your art forms and then create whatever comes to your mind. Creating art is also a low-cost hobby since most of the tools required for pursuing such a hobby are not exorbitantly high! You can also gift your loved ones your little creations and spread the love!

Conclusion: Do something you love

There exist thousands of hobbies, but nothing like the one you like spending your time with. Time is invaluable and in the nuances of life, it has become more valuable than ever before to make the most of the time that is available to you. Doing something that you love and taking up your passions as your hobby is a great way to spend your spare time.

So, what about you? What are your favorite hobbies that you wish to pursue to satisfy your curious mind? Shout out your thoughts and comments regarding some of the best hobbies for an inquisitive mind below.

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A Shouter whose articles got mentions from the likes of The New York Times, Kissmetrics and AllTopStories. He writes articles, novels and poems; spends most of his time reading everything he could get his hands on. Srikanth is currently pursuing his Masters from The University of Illinois and holds a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He is a programmer, a motivational writer and speaker.

‘You must eliminate the notion that writing must only be of a masterpiece quality or not at all, and that is when you’ll be able to write something, ever!’

This sentence leads me to 3 thoughts : 1. You write amazing and your future is brilliant srikanth ! 2. Thoughts are universal and almost everybody thinks same way 3. I have faced this problem many times and only solution is keep going as you said above.

Hey Srikanth, I love spend the leisure time with my friends. You suggested the right thinks for sharing time with. I can consider serving to community events. Earlier I was engaged in these activities. But It has been a long time I have attend any community event. Thanks for rewinding those days in my mind…The made me felt very good.

writing daily is a good hobby to improve our writing ability and skill, photography is a fun part, but coding oh my god is the word comes from me when i see the coding word, tried my level best to learn coding but was not able to.

I too find volunteering services as the best one to take up as a hobby because it benefits a person in various aspects may not be monetary .So volunteering is always a recommendable job for all (no age limit ) .